Daniel 2:28:
“But there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to
the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days...”Daniel 2:31 36:
“Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was terrible.
This image's head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass,
His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay.
Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces.
Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.
This is the dream; and we will tell the interpretation thereof before the king.”Daniel 2:37 45:
"Thou O king, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory.
And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath he given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this head of gold.
And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth.
And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise.
And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters' clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay.
And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken.
And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.
And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.
Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure.”Daniel 7:1-14:
“In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon Daniel had a dream and visions of his head upon his bed: then he wrote the dream, and told the sum of the matters.
Daniel spake and said, I saw in my vision by night, and, behold, the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea.
And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another.
The first was like a lion, and had eagle's wings: I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth, and made stand upon the feet as a man, and a man's heart was given to it.
And behold another beast, a second, like to a bear, and it raised up itself on one side, and it had three ribs in the mouth of it between the teeth of it: and they said thus unto it, Arise, devour much flesh.
After this I beheld, and lo another, like a leopard, which had upon the back of it four wings of a fowl; the beast had also four heads; and dominion was given to it.
After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns.
I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots: and, behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things.
I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire.
A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him: thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened.
I beheld then because of the voice of the great words which the horn spake: I beheld even till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame.
As concerning the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away: yet their lives were prolonged for a season and time.
I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him.
And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.”Four world empires are described in the 2nd. and 7th. chapters of Daniel. Bible scholars agree they are the Babylonian, Medo Persian, Grecian and Roman empires. The metal man image of Daniel 2 and the beasts of Daniel 7 cover the same time periods: from Nebuchadnezzar to the setting up of the Kingdom of God.
Reading in Daniel 2, we find the STONE struck the image on the feet and toes and destroyed the other world powers. The action of the stone is in the future. for it destroys the other world powers represented by the image. The elements of all these powers are still in the world today.
Bible prophecy is not always told in sequence. Prophecy is also HISTORY foretold, and HISTORY BOOKS must be used to understand how and when if events have already been fulfilled.
Two beasts in Revelation 13 and one in Revelation 17 describe three phases of the Roman Beast, or Empire.Rev 13:1:
“And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.”Rev 17:3:
“So he carried me away in the spirit info the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.”
In Daniel 7 the fourth beast, (Roman Empire), had ten horns. A little horn came up after the ten horns were formed and uprooted three of them. Before one phase ends another is beginning to form. The one important thing to remember is that all four phases of the Roman Empire are just that: phases of the same empire.
The Two Horned Beast of Rev. 13: 1118, The Combination Beast of Rev. 13: 1 8 and the Scarlet Beast, (the beast that was, and is not, and yet is,) of Rev. 17, are still the Roman Beast of Daniel 7, in its different phases.
The first phase of the Roman Empire ended in 476 A.D. The second phase started about 395 A.D. In Rev. 13: 11-18 we find the second phase of the Empire: the Two Horned Beast. This beast had two horns “like a lamb” but spoke as a Dragon. (“dragon” denotes Satan: “And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent which is the Devil...” Rev. 20:2). Horns denote rulers: (Dan 7:24: “And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings” ) Horns on a lamb are useless, so this beast had two weak or useless, rulers, who spoke as a Dragon, or the Devil.
This beast describes exactly the weak, useless rulers of the time period from 395 A.D. to the beginning of the formation of the little horn and the image. The emperors were weak, useless rulers, but still had the power of the empire in their hands. This Two Horned Beast had all the power of the beast mentioned in the first eight verses of Rev. 13 the beast whose deadly wound was healed. Rev. 13:11 12: “And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb and he spake as a dragon. And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.”The beast with the two horns deceived the inhabitants of the earth into making an image to the beast which had the wound. NOTICE, he misled the people into making an image TO the Combination Beast (The beast that was a combination of these beasts: Rev 13:2: “And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.”), it was not an image OF the beast of Rev. 13:1 8, it was an image of the beast whose number was the number of a man, Rev. 13:15 18. Also notice the image of the beast is not limited to a certain number of years, as is the Combination Beast.
We find the Two Horned Beast had power to give life so the image could speak. We can trace the beginning of the TwoHorned Beast to the time of Constantine, the first so called “Christian Emperor.”
In Dowling’s History of Romanism 1845 edition, page 31, we find: “Soon after Constantine's professed conversion to Christianity, he undertook to remodel the government of the church so as to make it conform as much as possible to the government of the state.” That was the beginning of what became the image of Rev. 13.The Combination Beast was like a leopard, it had the mouth of a lion, feet of a bear and seven heads with the name of blasphemy on them because: “The dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority,” Rev. 13:2. The description is of a combination temporal and religious government carrying out the traditions of Paganism.
The emperors and Popes, during the time of the Combination Beast, were interdependent. A mouth was given to the Combination Beast.
The time from Constantine’s vision of the cross to the year 610 A.D., when the Combination Beast began to reign, saw the formation, and then the reign, of the TwoHorned Beast. The Two Horned Beast did not begin to reign until the so called “fall” of the Western Empire, but began forming before then.
James Benedict Carter, in his Religious Life of Ancient Rome, 1911 edition, pages 257, 258: in speaking of the death of Gregory the great in 604 A.D., and the part he played in the formation of the “empire” of the Church of Rome, (image of the beast), tells us: “He had not only saved Rome from the Lombards; he had saved her also from the domination of the Eastern Empire. Henceforth Rome and the Bishop of Rome were identical, and it was only a matter of time till Rome should be free...At Gregory's death the principles which went to make that empire, were already implicitly present. Thus a body politic was formed in which the body politic of ancient Rome could live on, and thus was fulfilled the last requirement which Paganism could well make of Christianity, the preservation, not only of her culture, her content, but also of her outward form.” Notice: Gregory the Great did not destroy the kingdom of the Lombards; they were still a kingdom when Charlemagne became emperor.E. Fowler’s translation of Leopold Von Rankes’ History of the Pope’s, 1901 edition, page 8, tells us: “This religion now received from the Roman Empire its externalforms also. Just as the Roman Empire was divided into East and West, so was the image of that empire: the Church of Rome.” Von Ranke says, on pages 9 and 10: “In addition to all this, the emperor now found it advisable to favor the advancement of a great patriarchal authority. In a law that became decisive for the predominance of Rome as well as Christianity, Theodosius the Great commanded that all nations claiming the protection of his grace should receive the faith as propounded by St. Peter to the Romans.... Thenceforth the power of the Roman Bishops advanced beneath the protection of the Emperor himself; but in this political connection lay also a restrictive force; had there been but one emperor, a universal primacy might have also established itself; but this was prevented by the partition of the empire.
“The emperors of the East were too eagerly tenacious of their ecclesiastical rights to make it possible that they should promote that ertension of power desired by the Western patriarchs in their dominions. In this respect also the constitution of the church presents the closest resemblance to that of the empire.”
In Dowling’s History of Romanism, Page 55, we find: “Previous to the year 606 A.D. there was probably no Pope.” And on page 56: “When we say, therefore, that previous to A.D. 606 there was no pope, we mean, of course, in the present exclusive sense of the word, as the supreme pontiff and boasted head of the universal church. Till this time, notwithstanding the prior origin of many popish corruptions, popery, or the Roman Catholic religion in it’s present form, as a distinct and compacted system, had no existence.”
<> Before we finish analyzing the work of the Two Horned Beast we should find out when the “Little horn” of Daniel 7 started to form. One clue is in the description of the horn as a “little” horn. The Two Horned Beast had two horns “llike a lamb” How big are the horns of a lamb? They are “little” as well as useless.
The little horn with the eyes and mouth began to form when the first phase of the Roman Empire began to fade. The western part of the empire, after struggles and setbacks, during the reign of the TwoHorned Beast, finally became stronger and the “little” horn, becoming more “stout” than his fellows, (Daniel 7:20) and began to reign as the Combination Beast.
We know the Roman Empire did not fall; only one phase ended and another took over. After the so called “fall” of the Western empire we see the Two Horned Beast ruling and deceiving the people into accepting paganism under the guise of Christianity. He is doing this in the “sight” of the Combination Beast. “Sight” according to Strong’s Concordance: “before; from a distance.” “Before, from a distance” could only mean the “Image” was being formed before the Combination Beast began its reign.
The “little horn” begins his reign as the Combination Beast with the Image, (Roman Catholic Church), “speaking” through the “mouth” given to the Combination Beast. The Papacy, (mouth), worked through the beast while the emperors did the bidding of the “mouth.” The Image of the Roman Empire “caused” those refusing to worship the Image of the Beast to be killed: Rev. 13:15. The Popes, (mouth), forced the emperors into doing the things they thought they could not get away with. They cursed and blasphemed and fulminated and excommunicated until the emperors did what the Popes wanted them to do.
The religion of rebels, (Paganism), really began in the Garden of Eden and was the reason GOD sent the Deluge on the world of sinners. How did Paganism become established after the flood? Historians trace the beginning of organized false religion to the land of Shinar. We must give the first king of Babylon, in the land of Shinar, the dubious honor of being the first to organize this sacrilegious system after the flood. That first king was the son of Cush, the grandson of Ham, the greatgrandson of Noah. His name: Nimrod!
Rev 13:17, 18: “And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.”
Ferrais' Eccl. Dictionary: “The Pope is of so great dignity and so exalted that he isw not a mere man, but as it were God, and the VICAR OF GOD.”
“Hence the POPE is CROWNED with a TRIPLE CROWN, as KING of HEAVENand of EARTH AND of THE lower REAGIONS.”
“Our Sunday Visitor” (Catholic Weekly), Bureau of Information Huntington, Ind., April 18, 1915:
Ques.- “What are the letters supposed to be in the Pope's crown, and what do they signify, if anything?”
Ans,-“The letters inscribed in the Pope's miter are these: VICARIVS FILII DEI, which is the Latin for `VICAR OF THE SON OF GOD,'
The letters that was given the Pope as stated in “Word Studies in the N.T.”
By M.R. Vincent D.D.:
“VICAR OF CHRIST”
LATIN:
V=005; I=001; C=100; A=000; R=000; I=001; V=005; S=000== This = 112
F=000; I=001; L=050; I=001; I=001===053
D=500; E=000; I=001===501
112+053=501=666
We know the religion of Rome is straight from Paganism. (see History of Romanism by Dowling: “Dr. Middleton visited Rome not as a theolopian, but as a classical scholar;...but that when he reached Rome, so exact did he find the resemblance between the temples, the images, and ceremonies of Popery, and those of Paganism, that he came to the just conclusion that he could in no way more effectually increase his familiarity with the latter than by directing his attention to the former....all whose ceremonies appear plainly to have been copied from the rituals of primitive Paganism; as if handed down by an uninterrupted succession from the priests of old, to the priests of new Rome,”).Many other books tell us the same. Therefore it should be no surprise to see the Combination Beast depicted as having all the former pagan empires represented in his reign. All that would not worship the Image of the beast, [mark in forehead], or obey, [mark in hand], were to receive death as punishment.
To see how he was to receive this punishment we quote from the History of Romanism by Dowling, pages 305, 306: “As for any layman, who shall be found guilty, either publicly or privately, of the aforesaid crimes, (that is, preaching or speaking improperly of the sacraments), unless by abjuring his heresy, and making satisfaction, he immediately return to the orthodox faith, we decree him to be left to the sentence of the secular judge, to receive punishment, according to the quality of the offense.“The meaning of leaving these poor victims of popish cruelty was well understood to be the equivalent to a sentence of death, often in the most horrid form of torture and lingering agony: as it was well understood by the secular princes that they would themselves suffer the vengeance of the church, if they should fail to execute, to the very letter, the oath imposed upon them by the pope to extirpate heresies out of the lands of their jurisdictions. The emperor, also by these decrees, so pleasing to the popes, declares infamous, and puts under the ban of the empire all who shall in any way receive, defend, or favor these heretics... The arrangement by which the priests delivered up their victims to the vengeance of the secular powers, under the hypocrifical pretense fhat the church abhorred the shedding: of blood...was an arrangement by which, in the words of Dr. Jortin, 'the priest was the judge, and the king was the hangman.’”
In The Advent and Sabbath Advocate, Marion, Iowa, March 21, 1882, an article titled “The Power of the Vatican: Its Rapid Decay” states: “On 13th July, 1870, the dogma of infallibility was decreed. In that hour, the tolling of the death knell of the temporal power of the head of the Papal Church was heard. July l 5th 1870, France declared war against Prussia, thus dooming her own empire to annihilation.
July 18th, 1870, borne on the shoulders of some who felt honored by being permitted to kiss his toe, and under a magnificent canopy of peacock’s feathers, there prostrated thousands before Pia Nono, who uttered the crowning blasphemy the dogma of Papal infallibility! From that hour he went down. July 25th., 1870, Louis Napoleon ordered the French troops be withdrawn from Rome, the last prop from under the Papal throne.
Sept. 9th 18 70, Napoleon surrendered as a prisoner of war at Sedan, and in two days the Empire ceased to exist, and France became a Republic. On the 12th the Italian army entered the Papal States. On the 19th Victor Emmanuel's batteries were put in position before Porta Pia, and the Pope was ordered to open the gate. At 5 o'clock the next morning the guns were thundering; and after five hours the wall fell and the army entered in triumph.”The Combination Beast phase of the Roman Empire ended and the iron and clay of the metal man image became evident. Some of the nations that made up the empire remained strong, (iron), and some became weak, (clay). The whore still was sitting upon “many waters”: the spiritual power of the Pope had not been taken from him.
The whore did not have the temporal power of a great empire to sustain her. The temporal power of the “kings of the earth” was still in evidence but in a fragmented way. The Beast went into the bottomless pit, (obscurity), in 1870.
The Scarlet Beast of Revelation 17 is explained as the one that was to come up out of the bottomless pit, or obscurity, verses 3, 7, 8.Verse 3:
“So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.”Verse 8 also explains that the Scarlet Beast is the beast that “'was and is not, and yet is.” It is the same beast, the beast that “'was” part of a world empire, “is not” a beast with that same power still evident, “yet is” still the beast or government that will, in the near future, collect the ten horns of the Scarlet Beast.
We have found the temporal reign of the Popes came to an end in 1870. According to the 17th chapter of Revelation the Scarlet Beast was to ascend out of the bottomless pit, (obscurity) and acquire the ten horns, which are ten kings, or rulers that are to receive “power as kings one hour with the beast” verse 12. These same kings are to “Hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire”, verse 16. These same kings will “Make war with the lamb...” verse 14.
This time period, from the time the Combination Beast ended its reign to the next world ruler, (Christ), corresponds to the feet and toes period of the metal man of Daniel 2.
Edmund Paris’ book The Vatican Against Europe, tells us that in 7 February of 1929 the world learned that a treaty called the “Lateran Treaty” had been signed between the Pope and Mussolini restoring the Vatican as a sovereign state. The Scarlet Beast, the beast that “was, and is not, and yet is,” came up out of the “bottomless pit” (obscurity) and is a temporal and political power at this moment. The Scarlet Beast, (Vatican and allies), has caused one world war since coming up out of the “bottomless pit” and is busy working toward another one. It is truly the “beast that was, and is not, and yet is.”In the Denver Post Religion News Weekly of Friday, November 26, 1976, under the heading of “Priest says Church infiltrated” we read the charges that the Vatican is becoming pals with the Communists: “He says he doesn’t believe the Pope is a Communist ‘but he certainly is not anti communist’...There had been a ‘massive infiltration and subversion in the Roman Catholic Church by those intent on destroying it’, a Connecticut priest believes.”
The“destruction” had been going on since the second Vatican Council (1963 1965), according to the Rev Francis Fenton. ‘But the subversion was in the woodwork before Vatican II’. He is particularly critical of the Pope for his “favorable” relations with the Communists, saying “Paul has met with leaders of several Communist Countries... ‘It’s difficult to pinpoint Paul’s guilt, but it is obvious what he approves.’ ‘Heresy abounds, revolutionaries run the church....’
“The priest named some cardinals and bishops in other parts of the world he considers to be Communists...Fenton also criticizes the fact that "Cardinals and Bishops are now becoming members of Free masons...” the aim of Masonry is to destroy all religion and the Catholic Church in particular, and to destroy all civil government... and said many high officials in the Vatican belong to the order.” Can we doubt the Scarlet Beast is gathering the ten horns that are to destroy the whore, (woman, church, image)?
To point out more clearly our time in prophecy we need to go to the 11th and 12th chapters of Revelation, and to the 38th and 39th chapters of Ezekiel. Here, again, we study the forty and two months and the 1260 days, in Rev. a day for a year, 1260 years... verses 2,3, of chapter 11: “but the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not, for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months, and I will give power unto my two witnesses and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and three score days, clothed in sackcloth.”
1260 years the witnesses were to prophecy in sackcloth. Sackcloth was worn by mourners and captives. The two witnesses were to prophecy for 1260 years in sackcloth. It does not say they would not continue after the 1260 years. In the 7th verse it says that: “After... they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war with them, and shall overcome them and kill them.” It was 59 years after the 1260 years when the Scarlet Beast ascended out of the bottomless pit, (obscurity), in 1929. “Kill” can mean “to destroy the active or vital qualities of; to put an end to; to destroy the effect of.” ( Webster’s New World Dictionary.)
Notice the two witnesses were to prophecy in sackcloth the same length of time the woman of Revelation 12, (Church of God), was to be in the wilderness; Revelation 12:14. We have already established that “a time, and times, and half a time” is 1260 years. That is the same amount of time the Combination Beast, (little horn), was to reign, and the two witnesses to testify in sackcloth.
The beast that ascended out of the bottomless pit, (the Scarlet Beast “the beast that was, and is not and yet is”), is to “Make war against them, and kill them... And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth. And after three days and an half the spirit of life from God entered into them and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which saw them” Verses 7, 10, 11.
Who are these two witnesses, or what are these two witnesses? During the reign of the Combination Beast, the time of the woman’s flight into the wilderness, (lonesome, solitary, desert place), the word of God could not be preached any way but in sackcloth or mourning; it was “captive”: not preached freely. The word of God was suppressed by the whore of Babylon, (image), and the Roman government. The word truly was in sackcloth, suppressed and blasphemed, for that period, but the two witnesses were still “talking” to those not afraid to listen.
What does “witness” mean ? One meaning, according to Strong’s Concordance is: “record.” So these two “records” were suppressed as much as possible during the 1260 year reign of the Combination Beast, during the time the woman, (Church of God), was in the wilderness. The serpent, (dragon, or Satan), sent waters as a flood “Out of his mouth” to destroy the woman: Rev.12:15. The phrase “as a flood” in Rev.12:15, according to Strong’s Comparative Concordance, means “by the stream on the other side of the flood.” We know that is just what the Dragon, (Satan), through the “mouth” of the Combination Beast, did for 1260 years. The mouth tried to destroy the woman with a stream of words “from the other side of the flood” or the teachings of Paganism, carried over from the other side of the Deluge and established this side of the flood by the man who was known down through the centuries as Saturn, the Sun god, and whose name is the number 666: Nimrod, Noah’s great grandson, the first king of Shinar.In these two records, (two witnesses), we find the record of the teachings of God through all the prophets, apostles and preachers since Creation. These records, the teachings of the Old Testament and the New Testament, prove Paganism, or the teachings of Satan, to be the evil it is. After centuries of effort, the Roman Beast, with the help of the ten nations or powers he is acquiring as the ten horns of the Scarlet Beast, will finally succeed in his efforts to “kill”, (destroy the vital or active qualities of), the two witnesses, (records), of Truth.
Why are these two witnesses pictured in sackcloth? Because for 1260 years the Combination Beast with his mouth, (Papacy), and the Image of the beast with the number of a man, 666, held these two witnesses captive: they were unable to witness openly and freely. These two witnesses are still prophesying, (teaching), but not in sackcloth. Since the temporal power of the Pope of Rome was taken from him in 1870 great strides have been made in the ability of God’s people to send the contents of these two records to those interested in Truth.
When the Scarlet Beast finally gathers all the ten horns and they destroy the image, (Catholic Church), they also will destroy the effectiveness of the two witnesses.All false religions will probably be in one conglomerate form, the teachings of the false prophet mentioned in Revelation 16:13, “And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Aimighty.”
<> To also help pinpoint our time in prophecy we need to study the 38th and 39th chapters of Ezekiel. In the 8th verse of chapter 38: “In the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste, but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them.”
After the two witnesses are “killed” by the Scarlet Beast, nations will rejoice and send messages of congratulations and gifts to each other for they will think truth has finally been crushed forever.
If it takes the destruction of the Catholic Church for the allies, (horns), of the Scarlet Beast to immobilize the two witnesses, (records), of truth, they will not hesitate to do so: for three and a half years truth will not be preached. We are told in John 9:4 there will be a time when “the night cometh, when no man can work” and in Revelation 15:8: “And no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.” After the 3 1/2 years the two witnesses are “dead”, the spirit of life from God revives them and they are raised up to such a high plane of recognition, (heaven), the ones that “see” them, (recognize them), know “great fear”: verse 11. (Heaven: “air, power, elevation, sky.”)
“Safely” in Strong’s Concordance, can mean “properly, a place of refuge; with assurance, boldly.” Who are the ones coming against the mountains of Israel at this time? We find in the first few verses of Ezekiel 38 they are: Meshech, Tubal, Gomer, the house of Togarmah; with them will be Persia, Libya, and Ethiopia. These Muslim nations hate any kind of religion called Christian, and they be the ones to destroy the woman riding the scarlet beast. Then they will turn on Israel.
<> In Genesis 10:2 5 we find the names of the first two generations of Japheth’s sons, (Noah’s grandsons and great grandsons), and where they settled after the flood. Included in those names are: Gomer, Magog, Tubal, Meshech, Togarmah, and Tarshish. “By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands, every one after his tongue, after their families”, verse 5. This settling of the descendants of Noah was after the time the Lord said: “Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech,” Gen. 11:7.
<>The Zondervan Pictorial Bible Dictionary, page 402, under the name “Japheth” says: “He is the progenitor of the more remote peoples of southeastern Europe.” A map of “lands and Nations of the Bible” shows Gomer, a descendent of Japheth, as settling west of Mount Ararat, the ancestor of the Cappadocians. Through histories we find Tubal, Meshech and Togarmah settled in what is now Turkey and Asia Minor. The descendants of Ham went down into Egypt and that area, including Ethiopia. Sheba and Dedan were the great grandsons of Ham and they, too, settled south of Mount Ararat; down into the Arabian Peninsula, around the Red Sea.
Dedan settled in the northwestern area, Sheba in the southwestern. History tells us Japheth had seven sons that were ancestors of the peoples of the “isles of the Gentiles Hellenes or Greece, an area including Asia Minor and upper Greece. Shem's descendants settled Syria, Mesopotamia and Assyria.”
With this army coming against the mountains of Israel will be Persia, (Iran), Ethiopia, and Libya: “Gomer and all his bands, the house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all his bands, and many people with thee... And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars not gates; ...to take a spoil and to take a prey; ... upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, ...Sheba and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof, shall say unto thee, Art thou come to take a spoil?...” Ezek. 38:6, 11, 12, 13 (parts of verses).
We have found Sheba and Dedan are the ancestors of the Arabian peoples. Tarshish is believed to be the area in southern Spain, on the Mediterranean, around the southern coastline. The young “lions” mentioned in the 13th verse is from a Hebrew word, (kephiyr), meaning “a village, a lion.”
The descendants of Sheba and Dedan and Tarshish, with their “villages” of followers, will ask the descendants of Meshech and Tubal and those from the land of Gog, what they are doing when they descend on the mountains of Israel with their allies: Iran, Ethiopia and Libya. Gog: the land of Turkey, Asia Minor, Southern Russia and the Crimea. We can see the beginning of this alliance taking shape. It will not take much time for an army to form to come down against Israel from “Out of the north parts” verse 15.
The key verse that proves this invasion will be before the Battle of Armageddon is the same verse: “And thou shalt come from thy place out of the north parts, thou, and many people with thee, all of them riding upon horses, a great company, and a mighty army.” “Out of the north parts” does not mean all the nations of the world. “Horses” in this passage is from a root word meaning “leaping” or “swallow.” It could mean any mode of transportation that is rapid.
The 38th chapter tells us this battle will be in “The latter days, and I will bring thee against my land, that the heathen may know me, when I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog, before their eyes...and I will call for a sword against him throughout all my mountains, saith the Lord God: every man’s sword shall be against his brother...thus will I magnify myself, and sanctify myself; and I will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I am the Lord.” Parts of verses 16, 21, 13.
The army that is coming down on Israel from the north will “Fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou and all thy bands, and the people that is with thee...So I will make my holy name known in the midst of my people Israel... So the house of Israel shall know that I am the Lord their God from that day forward. And the heathen shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity: because they trespassed against me...” verses 4, 5, 7, 21, 23, (chapter 39). This army is to fall upon the mountains and fields of Israel. Every man’s hand is to be against his brother in this battle. In this battle the Lord does not appear, only his “presence” is felt, through the destruction of the army (Ezek. 3 8:20).
This is not the Battle of Armageddon because the army comes down from the north, it specifies what nations are involved. In the Battle of Armageddon all nations are involved. Some of the nations mentioned in Ezekiel will ask the others why they are coming against Israel: for a prey? a spoil? In the Battle of Armageddon there will be no questions of this sort. All nations will be against Jerusalem, not the nation or mountains of Israel.
The valley where the Israelites will bury Gog is “the valley of Hamon Gog.” After the battle of Armageddon there is no mention of anyone burying anyone. The Battle of Armageddon will be in the Valley of Jehoshaphat. All the nations of the world could not gather in the Valley of Jehoshaphat but an army of the United Nations could. There has been motion after motion in the United Nations assemblies to have the city of Jerusalem declared a universal city. The representatives of the Vatican have been working for this for years and years.
The “horns” the Vatican is in the process of collecting, will probably be the ones who will help the “beast” accomplish this goal. It may well be the match that sets the world aflame.Our time in prophecy? We see the King of the Vatican, (the Scarlet Beast), gathering his ten horns, the powers that will destroy “religion” or the whore. When the Common Market was organized the hierarchy of the Vatican was jubilant, it was a treaty they claimed was made for their benefit. The legal name of the treaty is “Treaty of Rome.” The ten horns may come from this alliance, or they may be other atheistic nations. But since they will be horns of the Scarlet Beast it probably will be nations of the old Roman Empire.
We are in the time of the ten toes of the metal man, (same time as the ten horns of the Scarlet Beast; the last phase of the Roman Empire), and the time of the forming of the alliances that will bring the nations down from the north parts to try to destroy Israel.
There are only a few prophecies to be fulfilled before the return of Christ. We can see by the conditions of the world the people will not object to the “killing” of truth. Evil is accepted as “good.” Where in history has there ever been the acceptance of the “marriage” of homosexuals, performed by ministers and judges? When has a society of civilized nations accepted as “good” men and women living together as man and wife without the bother of getting married?
Schools are teaching children it is necessary and normal to have sex while they are still young so they will be better adjusted when they are older. And decent people are letting this happen to their children. Women are usurping the place of men...the nuclear home is practically a thing of the past; children are considered liabilities instead of assets.
Psychologists, psychiatrists and some ministers are brainwashing everyone they can into accepting these things as “good” for them. School children are being graduated after years of being taught to reject God and their own country. And still the parents are sitting idly by doing nothing about it. Will they object when the ten horns proclaim one “religion” or ban all religions? It will be only a very small step to allowing the “horns” to “kill” the two witnesses (records) of truth. After the ten allies of the beast destroy the woman riding the Scarlet Beast they will fight against Christ.The “beast” of Paganism has existed from the first king of Shinar: Nimrod. His mark brands those opposing God. Anytime anyone takes part in any phase of Paganism he receives the “mark of the beast”: 666, the number of the name of a man: Nimrod, known as Saturn, or the sun god, the first man to organize men into groups serving heathen “gods”: the blasphemer of God.
We are in the “toes” of the Roman Empire. It will not be long until Christ will stand on the Mount of Olives. “Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle. And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east...” (Zec. 14: 3,4)Those who have the mark of the beast will not be part of his kingdom.
If we BELIEVE any part of Paganism we have the mark in our forehead; in the hand if we PRACTICE any part of Paganism.
We see the fulfilling of so many of the signs of the soon return of our Saviour.
HOME | BELIEF | LITERATURE | EMAIL US
Affiliated with
7th Day Church of God
3103 Pioneer Ave. S.E., Cedar Rapids, IA 52403
e-mail: shinelt@mchsi.com
All information on this site is free for public use
if used without being edited.